In the media segment, Dr. Sue defined microaggressions as verbal
behaviors usually containing an insulting message to women, people of color,
gay or lesbians intentionally or unintentionally that may cause severe or
psychological stress and harm. (Laureate
Education 2011).
I am
employed at a non-profit organization where mostly African Americans and
sometimes homeless children attend. Despite how some people my just see us as
daycare, we do a lot more than normal childcare centers. We have 2 Georgia Funded
Pre-K programs, a community outreach team, health coordinators, parent social
committee coordinators, and a safety committee. Most of the committees are
filled with teachers within the program whom all work together to make out
program a success.
About two
weeks ago the speech therapist, whom is a white female that, comes regularly to
our school maybe twice a week and who also knows all about our program complemented
us on how awesome of a job she thinks we are doing. She stated, “I’ve never
been into a low income school that is as dedicated as you ladies are. I am so stunned
at how much you all value education and also how the parents in this area
participate. You don’t usually find that in a lot of rural neighborhoods.”
The only
thing I could do was to say thank you, smile, and walk away.
I feel as though
this was a microinsult. Even though she was consciously giving us compliments I
feel as she was unconsciously saying that most African Americans do not value
education and that the teachers of these schools are lazy and aren’t passionate
into teaching these kids because there is not hope. As an education professional
I feel that we should take our job seriously and to not have biases towards children
because we are there to help them and no matter of the economic status they all
have a chance.
Gaining the knowledge
of microaggressions effected my perception that stereotypes have a huge influence
on the way we discriminate and also the prejudices we have against each other
because it has an impact how we perceive one another. We often treat people
unfair and think that it’s justified because of a specific stereotype that we
may believe about them. We must overcome stereotypes by becoming aware of
thoughts and feelings that we have about one another and the behavior it may bring
about. It is important to get the facts on the individual and not look at them
as a group.
Reference
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
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